[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
The best 'history' of the success of PENN's institutional
thinking may be on its own Web-site. There are graphics
which define Campus growth. Check out:
http://www.pennconnects.upenn.edu/explore_the_vision/a_growing_campus.php
thanks for pointing out that link, liz. those maps do tell a
powerful story -- penn as a contiguous campus that expanded,
sequentially, as a kind of organic inevitability, a kind of
manifest destiny or law of nature where gasses expand to
fill a given space -- but it's a rather partial story.
it helps to remember that the original version of penn began
at 4th and arch streets. recall, too, that for much of
penn's history, penn was a commuter school. the evolution
and expansion of penn into the urban university it is today
wasn't driven by a single vision or plan, but by changing
paradigms that exploited changing values and contexts over
time. for instance, in the 1930s and 40s penn considered
moving the campus to valley forge. later, as the campus grew
in the 50s and 60s, penn became a campus expanding in an
urban setting which disappeared to accommodate it -- in such
a way that by the 70s and 80s penn realized it had created a
very inward-looking university, not connecting with and
often at odds with its urban surroundings. it was only in
the mid-90s that this basic paradigm changed, to one of penn
actively transforming/transferring the urban environment
INTO its campus and AS its identity -- as a necessary act of
expansion.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/photorayz/1207733381/in/pool-46baltimore
more background here:
http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/0902/thomas.html
http://www.upenn.edu/gazette/1197/philly5.html
the pennconnects maps don't really convey today's story, how
'penn IN the city' has become 'penn AS the city', not only
in terms of real estate, but of infrastructures (political,
educational, social, medical, etc. -- ie, neighborhood
organizations, schools, hospitals, city districts, mayorial
administrations, etc.). as you point out, penn isn't simply
a campus, it's an institution, and institutions aren't
simply bricks and mortar (structures), but also mechanisms.
like:
http://www.upenn.edu/penniur/
http://www.upenn.edu/ccp/index.php
http://tinyurl.com/5osqmp
http://www.ucityphila.org/
http://www.campusapts.com/development.htm
http://www.design.upenn.edu/pennpraxis/
http://www.planphilly.com/about
finally, the pennconnects maps don't show us this:
http://www.philly.com/philly/business/24057734.html
and it will be interesting to see where penn praxis is,
years from now, when penn builds its pedestrian bridge
across the schuylkill -- ie, how penn actually connects, and
what penn is actually connecting with.
..................
UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN
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